Drum Lessons Bristol

One of my earliest students, Ross Bambrey, who became a very accomplished drummer, now runs his own drum troupe in Glastonbury. The Glastonbury Dragon Drummers group, performs regularly at festivals, composing his own tracks and is getting to grips with music by Tool, which typically involves some very weird time signatures and polyrhythms and is incredibly difficult.

It is such a pleasure to have trained and released a drummer into the wild.

DRUMMING IS FOR LIFE, NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS!

Get that world beating Christmas present to rock your loved one's world and create a hit that will change their life.

Gift vouchers available via email or printed for collection. Great fun lessons on drum kit from a very experienced drum teacher in Clifton, Bristol.

This year I am offering a very good group deal on ticket sales. The prices work out as follows:

1 lesson = £40
2 lesson = £70
3 lesson = £90
4 lesson = £100

A great last minute Christmas present!

Sam was an excellent student, with a lot of energy, which sometimes gave rise to concentration issues. He was very bright, but had a tendency to bounce off the walls. With dedication, patience and practise, he became a talented drummer.

It is awesome to see him finally playing live. I have reared another drummer and released them into the wild.

After looking at other drum courses, I decided that the Trinity College Rock & Pop Drum grades are by far the best. Trinity has invested in the licenses to allow them to produce cover versions of original, all time great tracks and they are very convincing and great fun to play along. It gives you the benefits of playing in a band, whilst studying on your own.

The selection of famous, hit rock and pop songs includes the likes of:

• Queen - We Will Rock You


• James Brown - Hot Pants


• Bob Marley - Three Little Birds


• Coldplay - Yellow


• Michael Jackson - Billy Jean


• Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally


• Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk


• The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army


• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under The Bridge


• The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary


• Alicia Keys - Fallin'


• Blur - Song 2

And a whole lot more. There are songs for all tastes, covering all genres.

Sixteen years ago, when I first started teaching drum kit, my second ever student, was Ross Bambrey, a bass player who wanted to improve his timing. He was already an accomplished musician and so quickly adapted to the theory side of things. This became an interesting exercise in teaching rhythm.

By the time he had left Bristol and moved to Somerset, he was a very capable drummer and when he joined a new band the guitarist said, "you are the tightest bass player I have ever met!"

He is now running the Glastonbury Dragon Drummers group, performing regularly at festivals, composing his own tracks and is getting to grips with music by Tool, which typically involves some very weird time signatures and polyrhythms.

It is such a pleasure to have trained and released a drummer into the wild.

Drum sticks are a weird and wonderful world, of which few seem to have definitive knowledge.

Hickory

The most important thing about drum sticks is that they should be made of hickory. Hickory is a hard wood, with fine grain, that produce very straight sticks that are resistant to warping.

Straightness

The second most important thing is that they are straight. You can check this by putting them on a flat surface and rolling them. If the tip wobbles, then they are wonky.

Weight

Next up is the feel of the stick. Is it the right weight for you? Generally speaking, smaller people, playing lighter beats will use lighter sticks. This is far from being a hard and fast rule, but is a good rule of thumb.

I start my students on 5As, but I myself use 5Bs. Generally speaking the lower the number, the thicker and heavier the stick. I have 7As for playing jazz, for example.

The difference between 5A and 5B is the shape of the shoulder. The 5A has a longer, slimmer neck and the 5B has a shorter, chunkier neck. This puts more weight up by the tip, for more powerful strokes. These are good for heavy rock, but more weight means more work, so they might wear your arms out.

Tip

There are two main shapes of tips and two main materials. Shape-wise there are round tipped and oval tipped. Round tipped give a slightly sharper sounds as there is less contact between the tip and the skin. Oval tipped give a softer strike as more of the tip strikes the skin.

With regards material, you get wooden tips and nylon tips. Nylon tips are harder and last longer, but they give a hard sound, which I particularly dislike on the ride cymbal. I play with wooden tips, with the understanding that they are better, but won't last as long.

Brand

To be honest, most of the big name brands like Vic Firth, Zildjian, Premier, Vater produce sticks of a very similar quality. For beginners, there is no major difference, between the major brands. It's probably best to stick to these makes.

Types

Finally there are different types of drum sticks, such as beaters, brushes and hot rods. These have different uses and are not really relevant to beginners.

There is an argument that Hot Rods and brushes help you play quieter, but they are a completely different kind of feel. Nothing like sticks. I would recommend that students learn to play more quietly, rather than use these sticks.

Taste

Finally and most importantly, buy a pair of drum sticks that you like, that make you feel good. If gold drumsticks flick your switch then get gold drum sticks. But the clincher is how they feel. If they feel good, they probably are good.

Firstly, the student didn't do their rhythmic dancing homework! Secondly, it turns out that they are not actually that into Three Little Birds by Bob Marley! (What's not to like?! There is no accounting for taste!)

This therefore rendered the experiment null and void, since the aim is to help them concentrate by helping them to get into "The Zone", so that they is totally into the music, if they don't like the music, this undermines the experiment completely.

We have now moved them onto Yellow, by Coldplay, which they loves, so we will see how their concentration works when they are playing a song that they are really into.

Stay tuned...!

I have a 12 year old student, who is highly intelligent, but struggles to concentrate. They are perfectly capable of working out and playing all the parts individually by themselves, but to be honest, they frequently struggle to count 8 bars, without getting distracted and lost.

This is a real problem as, if you cannot concentrate, you cannot play live music in a band, or even play a whole song on ones own. Concentration is more important than skill, although I would strongly suggest that concentration is very much a skill, especially in these circumstances.

I have explained to him that drumming is 10% skill and 90% concentration. As are all instruments. These are not official or even remotely scientific figures, but I believe they are representative. It doesn't matter how skilled you are at drums, if you cannot concentrate, you won't be able to get to the end of a song.

Today, I decided to try a new theory, based on the idea that, if somebody is totally into something, they won't be as easily distracted. He is totally into the drumming, but my theory was that he was not totally into the music.

When a drummer, or any musician, or dancer, or athlete, or any other highly trained professional, is performing at their best, they are said to be in "The Zone". The Zone is a beautiful place where you are so into what you are doing that the rest of the world ceases to exist. To get into this zone, you have to be totally into the music that you playing. You have to know it inside out and feel it as if it was part of you.

The tactic that I decided to employ was, firstly, of getting them to listen to the track over and over again, explaining the musicality of it: what parts you can follow, what parts are rhythmically reliable, the difference between bars and loops, what vocal, or musical signals there are to indicate a change in the music. Secondly, I decided to get them to stand up and move in time to the music. The point of this is that drumming is basically dancing sitting down.

The idea being that by learning to move their whole body in time with the music, if they do this whilst drumming, they will make it much easier to get into the zone. By moving the whole body, they are feeling the music, letting it move through them, letting it control, becoming part of it.

This has been set as their practise for the next week, to listen to the song and dance along to it. We will see what the result is next week. Fingers crossed. I will keep you up with progress.

This one makes me laugh. She was a very funny young lady.
Emily (14): "Gabriel is an amazing teacher. I've never had a drum teacher before, but I think he's probably doing a pretty good job, because I am doing pretty well. It has become my highlight of the week. I find it really exhilarating having learned something new every session."

Having done some soul searching and swallowing of pride, I have realised that you guys were right! The previous logo was too busy and didn't show up well at low resolution, so I decided to remove the vertical and horizontal lines from the letters and color them all black. The result is, I think, a lot cleaner and slicker and more subtle and stylish. Thank you all for your feedback! I think we are finally there!

One of my clients, who was given a drum lesson voucher for Christmas. At the end of his lesson, he turned to me and said, "Gabe, you are an inspiration!"

It was such a lovely thing to say and, whilst I don't want to blow my own trumpet, I will bang my own drum 😉

Comments like that are why I do this job <3

My favourite drummer of all time is Chad Smith, the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are my favourite band of all time. The thing I like most about Chad Smith, is that, whilst he can play some highly complex rhythms, his greatest strength is playing relatively simple beats in an interesting way. He can hold a simple back beat, but put in little flourishes and variations, like a hi-hat stab or trill, or a crushed roll and just lift an otherwise repetitive beat onto a whole 'nother level. He is the master of making simple beats interesting.

Roland are by far the leading makers of electronic drum kits in the world.

The thing which makes the Roland V-Drums the best electronic drum kits in the world is, in my opinion, the nylon mesh drum skins, which were designed by Remo, the leading drum skin maker and feature a military grade nylon mesh, that can withstand an absolutely relentless beating. I have never heard of one breaking. The reason why I think that this is the most important feature, is that, having tried out a lot of electronic drum kits, it is the single biggest contributor to playability.

The reason why the Rolan nylon mesh drum skin is so important is because of the "response". This is the drumming term for how the skin rebounds the stick after impact. These skins (or heads) are incredibly responsive and give the best likeness to an acoustic drum head that I have ever experienced. This is particularly relevant to the snare drum head, which needs to be incredibly responsive in order to allow double sticking, buzzing and drum rolls.

The other thing which sets Roland apart and gives the electronic drum range it's name ("V-Drums") is the inverted, conical, v-shaped pickup, which through clever programming, can determine the spacial position of the stick's strike on the skin, so that it can better mimic an acoustic drum, which sounds flatter in the middle and more boingy on the edge.

Along with the incredibly detailed and well thought out sampling of real drum kits, in real recording spaces, sampled at different velocities (power of strike), different positions on the skin, different skin types and different miking positions, this makes Roland undeniably, far and away the best producer of electronic drum kits in the world. There is just no comparison in my opinion.

I am proud to announce that I am now listed on The Trinity College London Teacher Directory, teaching the Trinity Rock & Pop Drums course.

After searching for some time for the best course to teach my students, the Trinity Rock & Pop course came head and shoulders above the rest. Teaching great, famous, classic and popular tracks along to high quality backing tracks makes this a really fun course to teach and my students love it.

Having been contacted by Trinity College, it is my great honour to be listed as a teacher of the Rock & Pop Drums course on the Trinity College website Teacher Directory.

Take a look at my listing here: https://teacher-directory.trinitycollege.com/teachers/music/gabriel-thornton-bs82de

Drumming for just 90 minutes each week can improve the life quality of young people diagnosed with autism, a new study has revealed.

Scientists found that learning to play the instrument tuned brain networks in autistic adolescents in as little as eight weeks.

Results showed that participants who improved their drumming skills showed fewer signs of hyperactivity, inattention and repetitive behaviours and demonstrated better control of their emotions. MRI scans also revealed changes to their brain function which, according to the study, were linked to overall behaviour.

The team intend to expand their drumming research and are looking to collaborate with schools or organisations working with people with ADHD, dyspraxia, dementia, and traumatic brain injury, and can be contacted at clemburkedrummingproject.org.

DRUMMING IS FOR LIFE, NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS!

Get that world beating Christmas present to rock your loved one's world and create a hit that will change their life.

Gift vouchers available via email or printed for collection. Great fun lessons on drum kit from a very experienced drum teacher in Clifton, Bristol.

This year I am offering a very good group deal on ticket sales. The prices work out as follows:

• 1 lesson = £40
• 2 lesson = £70
• 3 lesson = £90
• 4 lesson = £100

A great last minute Christmas present!

This is the most amazing, intricate and technical Drum & Bass drumming I have heard. Really inspirational! Gerwin Eisenhauer did this video for MEINL Cymbals and it has now had half a million views! If this doesn’t inspire you to learn to drum, or to work on your skills, I don’t know what will! All you need to do is start, work at it and stick at it and you will be able to do this one day. Call me on 07881 484555 or email gabriel@drumlessonsbristol.com and I will help you on your way to becoming a drum God! 

Sadly the drumming world has lost another great. Neil Peart (September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was the drummer and principle lyricist for Rush, a Canadian hard rock band, ranked “third most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band” by Billboard. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983, making him the youngest person ever so honoured. 

The video for “Kill The Pig”, the pig being a metaphor for your own personal demons, compiling a whole collection of gigs at different venues. 

OK, I have now officially recovered from Glastonbury Festival and a great weekend of working at the Glasto Latino tent, dancing with friends and punters alike, for what was an awesome weekend of partying. One of the many highlights has to be jamming with Pravin Panchal and members of Aji Pa Ti, Son Yambu and Salsa Celtica, although I might have been a bit worse for wear with Salsa Celtica!! Pravin, you rock! 

Rock baby, rock! My youngest student! Not really, but I have carried out guided play with a two year old with the help of his mother. It’s never too young to start learning drums! 

He absolutely loved it and referred to the drums as "the bums" which his Mum thought was hilarious. It was great to see how easily even a two year old can pick up some basic rhythmic skills.

Check out these awesome talents… he’s only 5 years old!!! You’re never to young to learn to drum! 

At the other end of the crazy scale, Buddy Rich, probably the best drummer to ever walk this world, played right up until just before he died at the age of 69! You’re never too old to learn to drum! 

Well, would you believe it, it turns out there is such a thing as Extreme Sport Drumming! Check out the winners of the World’s Fastest Drummer 2014, competition… 

Drumming can make you rich! Ringo Starr, of the Beatles, is worth $300 Million! Check out the world’s 30 richest drummers. 

Omg! I’ve so totally got to learn the tablas… Mind blowing! I’ve never seen anyone play so fast and he’s only a kid. 

If these guys can knock out such awesome rhythms with bits and bobs, there is no need to wait until you can afford a drum kit before you start drumming! 

I gotta go get me some trash! More evidence that you don’t need a drum kit to learn drums. Rhythms are transferrable to anything you can hit that makes a noise. You can even play rhythms with your hands on your lap or simply by clapping, clicking your fingers or tapping your toes. Learn rhythm and tap into life’s most primal musical experience. It is even more fun to play it than it is to watch! Contact me at gabriel@drumlessonsbristol.co.uk if you would like to know more. 

When I get a son (or daughter for that matter) this is what I’m gonna do. Kiddy (and Daddy) got skills! Want to be able to do this kind of thing with your kids? Give me a call on 07881 484555 or drop me an email at gabriel@drumlessonsbristol.co.uk. 

Very pleased to announce the publication of the digitised version of the Muse - Assassin drum tablature. 

Live drums recorded along to No No No by the Boogaloo Assassins as part of the Westernize Project. 

Jimmy Chamberlain is the drummer from The Smashing Pumpkins and one of my drumming heroes. Jazz trained, he chose instead to play in a rock band and good job he did too, coz he has taken rock drumming to a whole new level. This is his solo project where he really lets rip. Musically, it doesn’t massively do it for me, but as a showcase for his skills, it is awesome! 

Just had another awesome lesson with my autistic student and have found a great way to balance the lesson. He has an incredibly short attention span, wanting mostly just to play around, so I start the lesson by allowing him to do so until he seems satisfied and then I ask him to choose his favourite rhythm from what he came up with. I then tidy it up and get him to learn it to a good standard, then he or I come up with a fill to go with it. The we start over again with a play session. All in all we tend to come up with 2-3 rhythm and fill combinations. He is really creative and comes up with some good stuff… Most importantly, he loves it! So rewarding! 

I am constantly reminded of what a big part psychology plays in learning. I see time and time again how fear will prevent somebody from being able to achieve something that is well within their skillset and, at the other end of the scale, how overconfidence will cause somebody to rush into something unprepared and get it wrong, thus denting their pride. This up and down cycle of confidence is very common and can be overcome by detaching emotion from failure. Making mistakes is part of learning. The thing to focus on is not the mistake itself, but how we respond to it. A mistake, once made, cannot be undone, the rest of the track, however, is still to be played. The correct response is to take it as a signal to refocus and concentrate harder on what we are doing, focus on the musician/backing track/click that we are playing to, focus on the next beat, focus on where we are in the track and make sure that we do our best to ensure that the rest of the “performance” is as good as we can make it. If the rest of the performance is good then, by the end of it, the “listener”, if they even noticed the mistake in the first place, will probably have forgotten it. The vast majority of people won’t even notice it in the first place! As a teacher I am happier to hear somebody make loads of mistakes, but keep the timing and keep the count, than I am to hear somebody play something perfectly then make a mistake and give up. Accept the mistake, keep going, concentrate and focus on making the rest of the performance the best that you can. 

Blimey! This is one of the most insane things ever! How this man keeps up this speed for so long, beggars belief! That’s some serious voodoo there! Johnny Mendoza playing with Sammy Davis Jr. in the early 1960s. This has to be seen to be believed! 

It turns out the most of the people who look at my website come from Brazil!!! I think I might have to start doing remote lessons via Skype! 

“When the drummers change their beat, the dancers also have to change their steps.” African Proverb. I love this proverb! It highlights the inextricable link between rhythm and dance. Beats make people move their feet. Change the beat and they change their feet! 

Clay Aeschliman of Polyphia performs the band’s song “G.O.A.T.” 

Rodney Holmes is a monster drummer. He’s been on the gig with some of the most monster musicians too: Carlos Santana, Jim Weider, the Brecker Brothers, Steve Kimock, the list goes on…But Rodney also writes his own music as well. He put out an album years ago called “Twelve Months of October” that is packed with great tunes AND great chops, two things that don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Apparently Rodney has more new tunes in the can with a new album coming out soon called “Axoim.” We can’t wait to hear it. This song, “Hipster Killer,” is from that yet-to-be-released album. Aside from taking the gold home for the best song title of the year, Rodney gets our thumbs up for a GREAT tune that has so many great elements to it. 

Is your partner a tapper without a drum? Do they mark the beat with their hands and their feet? But they do not have the kit to express it? Release your partner’s inner drummer with drum lessons from Gabe. Valentines Offer: 1 lesson = £35 (normal price) 2 lessons = £65 (normally £70, £5 off) 3 lessons = £90 (normally £105, £15 off) 4 lessons = £110 (normally £140, £30 off) N.B. This price is based upon lessons being taught at the teacher’s premises. If visiting is required there are travelling charges. This offer runs up until midnight 14th February, 2020.